On the run in Siberia

The author and his identical twin brother, Eske, went on an expedition in 1993 to northeastern Siberia with a group of researchers and a film crew to study the Yukaghirs, an indigenous group of hunters who live in the northern part of the Russian Republic of Sakha. The Yukaghuirs live remotely and are the earliest indigenous people known to live in northeastern Sibera. Their language has no evident link to any other known language group. They also have never domesticated animals as a food source and survive exclusively by hunting and trading furs, mostly sable. Their life is hard in post-Soviet Russia and they are underpaid and are unable to get crucial deliveries of food, weapons, and ammunition. The author wished to help and wanted to organize the Yukaghir hunters into a cooperative society. The author's project did not go as planned.